Chasing Rainbows
by the-original-hufflepuff
Summary: Rainbows had always disconcerted Draco, with their unabashed beauty and brightness. [Written as part of The Reviews Lounge's Rainbow Magic collab.]


**Okay, well if you read my fics then you're probably wondering why the heck I'm writing this as opposed to finishing my Remus/Tonks two-shot, right? This was written for The Rainbow Project at The Reviews Lounge , and is going to be posted as part of Rainbow Magic. Rainbow Magic is wrapping up soon so I had to write this fast. If you see this there then it's okay, this is my official warning. You should probably check out Rainbow Magic, there are several talented authors involved.**

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**Chasing Rainbows**

Rainbows had always disconcerted Draco.

They were unabashedly bright and beautiful, and no matter how hard you tried, a rainbow couldn't be touched. This bothered Draco, and his young mind couldn't comprehend why a rainbow got to be special enough to gaze upon the world from so high above and never need to join in.

Draco liked hurting things; it was a dark obsession he claimed ownership to. He loved stealing other children's toys, or insulting them, so that they burst out crying and ran away. He wasn't a bad person (at least, he didn't think he was), it was their own fault that they got hurt: they weren't strong enough. His mother and father had always taught him that crying was for the weak and foolish, and he counted himself as neither. So he sneered and smirked at the other boys and girls as they wailed, making them cry even more, and it made him feel better about himself. If he was making other people miserable then he was clearly better than them, and that felt good.

Draco could hurt several things, but one thing that he couldn't hurt was a rainbow, because rainbows are never close enough. He had tried on several occasions to find the end of the rainbow, not for leprechaun gold, but just so he could see whether rainbows can hurt too. He had failed every time, yet he had never given up his goal of reaching the end. He was forever chasing rainbows.

He thinks that's why he is drawn to the girl on the other side of the shop he visits with his mother today, because he has never seen anyone who is more like a rainbow. She has vivid pink hair that spikes up and frames her heart-shaped face, and she wears a bright yellow t-shirt, jeans and red sparkly shoes. _Muggle clothes_, he notes with contempt. She is arguing animatedly with a tall brunette woman who Draco presumes is her mum. He looks round at his own mother and sees she is too busy examining a silver handbag to notice if he slips away for a moment. He edges closer to this fascinating person, curious to hear what the mother and daughter are talking about.

"Really, Nymphadora, don't you think that your hair is a bit too bright? Your natural colour is pretty, why don't you wear that more often? And stop slouching, you'll end up like the Hunchback of Notre Dame!" the mother admonishes.

_Nymphadora? What a ridiculous name,_ he thinks, sniggering quietly.

"Who's the Hunchback of Notre Dame?" the rainbow girl called Nymphadora asks, staring critically at her fingernails.

She screws up her face and, to Draco's amazement, her fingernails change from a dark violet colour to the same shade of yellow as her t-shirt. She smiles as though satisfied with the result, and looks back at her mum.

"Don't you pay any attention in Muggle Studies? He's a character in a Muggle book, he lives in the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, and – Nymphadora, are you even listening?"

She isn't listening, her back is turned and she's examining a tiny pink bag interestedly. Her mother clears her throat, and she turns around as though surprised and says, "Oh, were you saying something?" her face a such picture of wide-eyed innocence that only the amused twinkle in her dark eyes gives the fact that she is winding her mum up on purpose away.

The mother sighs irritably, but her expression softens as she smiles and says "You're too much like your dad for your own good, you know" and the girl (he can't quite bring himself to say 'Nymphadora' even in his mind, it's just too silly-sounding) laughs.

"I'll go and get your new schoolbooks if you stay here and get yourself a bag" the mum says, turning to leave before adding as a second thought "a nice, big bag, there's no sense in getting that little one you saw earlier, you won't even get a single textbook in it!" to which the girl pouts slightly.

Her mum leaves, and it takes Draco a moment to realise the girl is looking over at him concernedly.

"Are you okay? Did you lose your mum?" she says in the voice that grown-ups and older boys and girls seem to reserve for small children. This irritates Draco: he is six and a half years old (woe unto the person who forgets the half), not a pathetic tiny baby.

"My mother's at home. I shop on my own." He lies, trying to make himself look taller.

"Right. What's your name?" she asks. Somehow, Draco gets the impression she doesn't believe his lie, which irritates him further.

"Draco."

"I'm Tonks," she says.

He frowns "No you're not, your mum called you Nymphadora."

"Yes, but nobody else ever calls me that. She was the fool that gave me the name and she's the only one foolish enough to use it." Tonks explains.

"Oh. Well, I think Tonks sounds silly too, it's not much better than Nymphadora" he tells her bluntly.

She laughs, which annoys Draco. Can't this odd girl see that he is insulting her? Why isn't she upset?

"Yeah, it does sound a bit silly, doesn't it? You don't meet many people called Nymphadora Tonks. Mind you, you can't talk with a name like Draco, can you?" she challenges, sticking her tongue out at the little boy.

Draco blushes furiously "Draco Malfoy sounds miles better than Nymphadora Tonks!" he fumes at her, fists clenched.

"Hmm, maybe. Did you say Malfoy? Why do I recognise that name?" she says, frowning slightly, before shrugging her shoulders. "So really, where is your mum?"

"Don't know. How did you do that thing with your nails?" Draco blurts out before realising he has just admitted to lying earlier.

"What, this?" and with that she screws her face up like she did earlier, but this time her hair goes bright green.

"Yeah, that," he nods, trying not to look impressed, though he is. "How'd you do it?"

She shrugs her shoulders again "I'm a Metamorphmagus, I was born able to morph my features".

"What makes you so special? Why can you do something that most other people can't?" asks Draco, because as far as he can see, the only special thing about her is her ridiculous name, and that's not really an achievement.

"I have absolutely no idea, but I think that everyone is the way they are for a reason. You're special in your own way." She smiles at him.

He is confused "What's my special thing then?"

"Well I don't know, I only met you five minutes ago! You seem quite well spoken for your age though. How old are you anyway, four? Five?"

"Six and a half, actually." He scowls at her.

"Oh, you look younger. I'm fourteen," She tells him, not bothering to apologise for her error.

He is about to respond angrily, when he sees her mother coming back towards them laden with books.

"Dora, have you still not picked a bag yet? For the sake of Merlin, you are one of the most indecisive people I've ever – oh, hello there," she stops abruptly, noticing the little blonde boy looking up at her from beside her daughter.

"This is Draco, I think he's lost his mum" Tonks says, concern back on her face.

"Well, what's her name, we can ask one of the shop assistants to cast a Sonorous and find her for you." The woman smiles kindly, and Draco finds himself smiling back despite himself, because for some reason he feels like he can instantly trust this woman. Also, he was beginning to feel scared that mother would leave without him

"Her name's Nar-" he starts off, but is cut off with a very uncharacteristic shriek from the woman in question.

"Draco! Come here at once, get away from that filth NOW!" she yells, looking rather unhinged, and Draco obeys immediately, terrified of his normally restrained mother for the first time in his life.

"Excuse me, what did you call me?" Tonks says, one acid green eyebrow raised as well as her voice, temper flaring up immediately.

"Narcissa, will you please refrain from talking about my daughter that way? It's just that it'd be rather embarrassing for the wife of Lucius Malfoy to get involved in a duel in the middle of a Hogsmeade shop, now wouldn't it? Especially if she had lost said duel, which you undoubtedly would. If I remember correctly you were always the weak, foolish one." Tonks's mother's voice is dangerously low, and Draco can feel the anger emanating from the woman, though he doesn't quite understand the situation. Why had mother gotten so angry, was it his fault?

"Wait, you mean that's...?" Comprehension dawns on Tonks's face as her mum gives her a curt nod, and then even more rage.

"We're better than this, Draco! Come on, we're leaving now." And with that, his mother grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the shop.

He glances back at the rainbow girl, and she glares at him as though he has offended her. Which was what he wanted, but now he sees that he'd rather have made her smile again. He is out of the shop and well out of sight of them now, but he is still trying to work out the events that had just taken place.

When he gets home, his mother yells at him for the second time in his life, the second time in the space of one day. She tells him that the girl is a common, filthy half-blood and her mother a disgusting blood traitor, and these are the very worst kinds of people, and doesn't he know never to talk to strangers? He just stands there and nods when appropriate, and later when he goes to his room and the house is quiet he thinks he hears strangled sobs coming from downstairs. He tells himself it's the house-elf, because crying is for the weak and foolish, and his mother is neither, no matter what the disgusting blood-traitor with the kind eyes and warm smile had said.

(and he never chases a rainbow again)

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**Reviewers get to chase rainbows with their favourite Harry Potter character :).**


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